Annie Clark, Landen Gambill, another survivor and I, along with former Assistant Dean of Students Melinda Manning, filed an Office for Civil Rights and Clery Act complaint against UNC on Wednesday.
As the primary writers, Annie and I spent 12 weeks, more than a combined 2,500 hours, doing legal research. We heard more than 65 stories at the time of filing, some from faculty and staff.
Each of the stories I heard, despite different dates and places, had three common elements: shame, silence and betrayal. There are too many stories that linger in silence.
Most of my friends are survivors, but I still wish every day that I never had to again hear, “Me too.”
Headlines about Steubenville and Delhi have revealed that, while the media are taking a greater interest in covering sexual violence, we as a nationwide audience are not demanding that our legislators and universities address violence in its greater context.
As Annie stated in The Huffington Post, fighting sexual violence is not a single issue campaign, and we cannot keep ignoring the trends that play out vividly before us.
Until we, as a worldwide community, commit to addressing this issue, it will continue to occur everywhere. Survivors will continue to feel disempowered to report assault until there is a collective understanding that sexual violence requires a response that is more than a policy checklist or an uproar about a single story.
The time has come for all of us to take action.
I am not filing this complaint because I seek closure for my own assault; this is neither about me individually nor about my assault. This is about all of us.
